To describe the woman whom I love, I could draw, paint, or take a photo of her...but I want more than to capture the moment. I might abstract the artwork (as I did for myself) or even write a poem, but she connects better with the tangible and literal.

I bought this 1¾ inch (47mm) multicromatic glass marble in 2003 when my relationship with Pam was in its embryonic days.
We exchanged emails for about ten days and then phone calls and emails for another two weeks before agreeing to meet. It was nice to get all our landmines and deal-breakers out of the way utilizing several modern marvels (today it's possible to never learn too late that you would've had a chance if you'd only known open-toed-shoes were a deal-breaker before meeting for coffee wearing Birkenstocks).
One of the reasons our relationship is joyfully approaching the ten-year mark under full sail is that when I bought this sphere, both of us were sufficiently aware of ourselves to not only be able to recognize our own landmines but to be truthful about them; ditto with our deal-breakers.
Email just made it easier to write my biggest deal breaker is smoking (of any kind) and one of my big landmines: I'm a voluntarily unemployed artist living in a mobile home on a pension.
Maybe that was actually four (or five?) landmines in one.
So we spent almost a month probing and divulging.
And then we decided it was time to find out if the other kissed good enough; if we enjoyed similar levels of intimacy as well as the same type of fucking; and determine if we might-could become simpatico with things like the other's snoring, farts, and idiosyncrasies.

ADDENDUM: Obviously, I began with a plan to describe the person I'm in love with (and maybe include some of the why I love her) but that became derailed by the sphere itself and the memories it holds. Which is the whole reason I'm writing about some of my spheres. So I left it as is.